MPD Chief nominee questioned before confirmation

Well good to see you and welcome to Fox 9 at 11 all day. Always good to have you with us as we get going on this Thursday. The gateway to the weekend. A lot coming up this hour including maybe some changes to the way you're pulled over if it's a an officer thinks that you have been drinking and driving. We'll look at what they're kicking around and how that could be different If you're pulled over. Right now, let's get over to meteorologist Keith Marler. He's talking about kind of a gray day out there a little bit. Keith, a cooler day certainly we're going to notice already this morning when you walk outside. It's noticeably cooler at this hour than it's been for a while. Yeah, certainly cloudy here in the metro. A little brighter, I'll tell you what, maybe 11:15, 11:20 will take you up to Duluth, show you some of that. But the clouds are certainly present here in the metro and our areas across our eastern viewing area into Wisconsin. A little brighter as you head off to the west and the northwest and pockets of clearing up to the north as well as temperatures started off this morning on a... Technically milder than normal note. I mean, we should be in the 20s and deeply frozen this time of year. But in the mid-30s this morning, we haven't really moved much, and we're not going to move much through the day-to-day as we have a drafty breeze coming on in here out of the north, 5 to 15 miles per hour. No real gusts associated with that, but it is enough to give us a windchill. So our 37-degree temperature feels like the upper 20s, which would be typical for a morning low, but we're no longer in morning low territory. We should be warming up through the 30s. So again, we're about on target for a late-morning temperature, But ultimately, we should be capping out. We're not in the middle 40s for this time of year, and we're not. We're going to stay in these upper 30s as we get back to upper 30s to right around 40, as some cooler air has been pooling on in. Old area of low pressure, big old cold fronts moved on by, big old Canadian highs building across the area and pushing cold air all the way down toward the deep south and out towards the mid-Atlantic, out towards New England as well, bringing rain and rumbles out across parts of New England and, well, the mid-Atlantic today, and some snow out across parts of northern New York and into New England proper, And a big trough in the jet streams digging out as well. Well, and that's allowing that cold air to pool in the upper levels of the atmosphere. We talked about that at the beginning of the week. The big ridge building, the big trough building, allowing all that cold air to circulate, move across the area as a whole. And the edge means we're right on that. Conveyor belt of that chillier air that's moving on in here for the day today and tomorrow, but we're able to slide out of it over the course of the weekend and back to some milder air heading on in the next week. So, yeah, there's your cloud cover, but it's brighter conditions up north and out toward the west at the moment as we go through the day today as we remain chillier than average. Certainly just barely very chilly compared to where we've been as of late. Monday and Tuesday, we're in the 60s. Yesterday, we still were 56 for yesterday afternoon's high at 230. Then we slid down the old flagpole of cold into today. Tomorrow, brighter, quieter, but still chilly. Upper 30s to right around 40 for a high both days. Tomorrow just feels better just because it's quieter overall. But on Saturday, we start to pick up a southeastern flow, only a few degrees warmer. But closer to average if not just a tick above and then we build on that into Sunday and especially into next week. So for today the November chill the clouds don't help us. Once we see a little bit of peak of sun or if you're already in the sun that does allow you to at least get the warmth from that a little bit. Struggling to get back to 40 today. 27 tonight on paper that's cold because officially we've only been frozen twice this year. That was late. That was last Friday and Saturday morning. We're going to do it again tonight at 27, a deep freeze, the coldest we've been. That's only two degrees below average. Hmm. And then for tomorrow, we do this the same thing. Sunshine around 40, but again, brighter and quieter overall with not much of a breeze. Then 44, technically speaking, is above average. By the time we get on into Saturday, an average high on Saturday is 43 or 42 even at that point into our stay on Sunday at 47. And then by the time we get back to these 50s, Thomas, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, especially those middle 50s, that is back to 15 degrees above average with morning lows that are also above average. By next week, an average The average high is 40. In the middle of the week and by the end of next week, average high temperatures a week from now are in the upper 30s, or at least close to it. Hmm. We lose about a degree every two days or so when it comes right down to it for this time of year. Keith, thanks so much. We'll check in again very soon. Appreciate it, as always. Right now, we want to take you to the Minneapolis City Council meeting where Mayor Jacob Wright, we know, nominated Interim Chief Bill Peterson to be the permanent police chief. He's answering questions. Let's listen in right now. Allegation against members of the Minneapolis Police Department. I take them very seriously. I touched on the fact that I've had, and I did a little more, Research, in the short time that I've been in this interim role, it's 41 different cases that affect roughly 85 officers that have come across my desk. And I've sat down and made some, you know, decisions that are significant around the allegations that have been made. And I also want to let the council know and members of the public know that These allegations, when they come through from a panel, if they're sustained, they go to the city attorney's office for review. The city attorney's office reviews these cases, and then they go back to internal affairs, to the deputy chief, and at this point, it's... Somebody that I put in that position that I have the utmost confidence in, in Deputy Chief Troy Schoenberger. He has impeccable character. He's one of the most honest people that I've ever known. He knows the system forwards and backwards. He has the respect of people within the MPD. He has the respect of people within the city attorney's office. I'm confident that he has earned the respect. ...of members of OPA, the independent monitor that is overseeing both the settlement agreement, Thank you very much. well, overseeing at this point the settlement agreement, and that he then comes to me with a recommendation, and that I sit down with all of that information from all of those people, and that I make a disciplined decision. And I take that responsibility very seriously. Okay. Thank you. So when we sat down, I told you that probably my My biggest priority here was that the next police chief be a change agent. We've heard extensively from OPA, from others that the Minneapolis Police Department needs culture change in particular. What's your plan for changing the culture at MPD? Council President, Council Member Stevenson, I believe that culture change starts at the top. So I wholeheartedly believe that that culture change starts with me as the chief of police. And again, I am somebody who has worked extremely hard to keep both my personal and professional life unsullied. To set the example, I am a huge believer in leading by example, modeling the standard and the expectations that I expect every member of the Minneapolis Police Department To Live up to so it first and foremost starts with me and then I believe that it starts with other leadership that you surround yourself with and early on coming into this role there were a number of vacancies and I know that there was questions and concerns from members of the council about that change that was being made. Frankly, I didn't have an opportunity to come in and sit down with all of you and explain those changes, but I did have members of my staff send forth the The bios for each one of those individuals. And I believe that I've surrounded myself with a high caliber, impeccable team of leaders who also are going to set the standard, the expectations that we expect out of every single member of the MPD. One of those choices was in putting somebody in our training unit that, again, I have the utmost trust in, in Commander Mullen. Because... When you're bringing on new members of the MPD, and we've been bringing in a lot of them, you set the standard in training as these people come into our ranks, and I believe that that is another way to bring about significant culture change. And then, on top of that, we are under a settlement agreement, right? The mayor and commissioner have signed an executive order that said we will abide by the terms. The consent decree and that those documents outline the culture change that we are mandated to make and I will be working very closely with members of ELIFA. I believe that I've already established a good working relationship with David Douglas and his team and I want to continue to grow that relationship and together. We will continue with the culture change that is needed within the Minneapolis Police Department. Okay, thank you. What parts of the culture do you need to change? And we've been listening to Bill Peterson, the interim police chief of Minneapolis Police. He has been chosen by Mayor Frey to be the permanent Police chief. So he's answering questions there from the council. We'll check in again on that later. Also, the council looking at a big data center question, which is, of course, a hot button issue around the whole country, not just here. But they'll be examining what the specifics will be on the now that the moratorium is ending on data centers in Minneapolis. We'll have more on that coming up. We'll drop in on that as soon as they. Take up that topic. It's pleased to meet you. Welcome back. Minneapolis City Council is asking questions of the mayor's nominee for police chief. That is Bill Peterson. Let's listen in to the questioning. You know, back then, you got a 4th Precinct CERT team. You have a day watch. You had a middle watch. You had a dog watch. And I don't even remember what other shifts or assignments there may have been in the 4th Precinct at that time. I was assigned there on 4th Precinct Middle Watch as a supervisor before. Those incidents occurred and then was transferred to the training division. Of course, in my capacity, working out of the 4th Precinct, I would have come in contact or interacted with some or all of those individuals. And the larger point that I'm making is these are officers who... Extremely problematic and racist behavior is the reason why we're in a settlement agreement and that was part of nurturing and cultivating a culture there that was also very racist and sexist. There's highly profiled cases there and making it very clear of if you engage with those folks, again, it makes it kind of challenging to believe that you never heard that rhetoric or them make discriminatory, you know, claims in front of you while you were there. But it sounds like you mentioned that there was... Very limited or no overlap. Another question that I wanted to raise based off of PHSE's meeting where I would also like a yes or no question. I noticed you weren't able to give a firm commitment. But do you also or can you commit to not promoting officers with problematic histories for leadership positions? I raised this. Especially after your response to Councilmember Stevenson's question of how you're going to get a grasp on MPD's spending, especially you mentioned Officer Gluekos, specifically in helping manage some of those financial issues, especially related to overtime. What's concerning to me about him being elevated to that is also in meetings or a meeting to council just several weeks ago, that officer also acknowledged Overtime had been abused under his watch. So can you make a commitment to not promoting officers with misconduct histories into leadership positions should you be affirmed as the chief? Council President, Council Member Wansley, it's not a yes or no answer. It simply isn't, because when you say misconduct, right? We review blue cards, complaint history for people. Before they are promoted, a lot of it depends on what the conduct is. Is it something that was a relatively minor complaint or something that is egregious or something in between? And then you have to sit down and evaluate, is that person promotable? And I can tell you, again, I can't get into the details. But there was an individual that I alluded to earlier that was removed from a promotional list. That was being recently established because of behavior that was concerning. So there is a high level of scrutiny that does go into evaluating each and every potential promotee, but it's not as black and white as a yes or no answer. Can you then share what you think? The level of misconduct, what level is most severe that would remove an officer from a promotional list? Council President, Council Member Wansley, you know, any of the, you know, the categories that you touched on for bias, discrimination, racism, certainly fall into that category. Thank you. Sustained. Complaints for excessive use of force, those are ones that certainly come to mind. There are, you know, out of these 41 cases that came across my desk to make disciplined decisions on, there were a number that the panel recommended a letter of reprimand, It was sustained. At a B-level, and that... A letter of reprimand was what was recommended in those cases, right? You have a sustained complaint, but that- Been listening in to the interim police chief that is Bill Peterson, who is the mayor's nomination for police chief. He's answering questions from the City Council of Minneapolis, of course, as they determine the next steps for the police chief and hoping to get the answers to the questions they're hoping to get. We'll have more on this story as it plays out throughout the day. Also, they'll be looking at a couple other issues for the Minneapolis City Council, so we'll pop back in and out during All Day. Right now, we'll take a quick break. When we come back, on the other side, meteorologist Keith Marler joins me. Welcome to the continuation of All Day Live here on Fox 9 and Fox Local. A lot to get to today, but one thing that we've been following throughout the past hour, and it continues to happen, is that the Minneapolis City Council Where the council is considering and expected to vote on the nomination of the Minneapolis police chief, the interim chief, Bill Peterson, to become the permanent chief on a 31-year veteran of the department. There was a big public hearing last week, but again, now answering questions from council members, so we're gonna listen in. Is my practice, right, to show up and be open and honest. As far as the accountability piece, I'm And people's concerns or questions around accountability, at times there are things that I can or can't discuss based on where things are at within our disciplinary system when it comes to answering questions about accountability. And at times that can be frustrating. But again, as these different cases where I am tasked with holding people accountable, That when discipline is issued after the grievance period and things are final, that they're posted to a dashboard where people can review those cases to see with their own eyes that there is accountability. Great, and maybe dovetailing off of that as well, are you able to speak to actions that you have already taken that kind of talk about your commitment to discipline since you've been interim chief? Council President, Council Member Whiting, yeah, again, there was a significant backlog in internal affairs cases, which I absolutely understand is frustrating for the complainants, it's frustrating for all of you, it's frustrating for community members, frankly, it's frustrating for the officers that have those complaints against them. It was certainly frustrating to members. Of the ELIFA team, and they reported very clearly about the backlog in IA cases. I understood that there were concerns. I thought that there needed to be, I didn't think, I knew that there needed to be a leadership change in our Internal Affairs Bureau. And I know wholeheartedly that I put the right people in place, starting with Deputy Chief Troy Schoenberger, And then allowing him... to pick his team that he can believe in and work with and that they got to work and that in a very short time, this backlog of cases started coming across my desk and that I would sit down and go through these cases sometimes. Thank For an entire weekend, reviewing summaries, going over cases, calling Deputy Chief Schoenberger, and then making those decisions to move that backlog forward. And that in the short time that I've been here, I've been through 41 of those cases. And that's the level of dedication you. that I will maintain moving forward if I am... Thank you. Moving on to the second piece, I have four here, so this is number two of the actionable framework that our students came up with. How will you expand opportunities for patrol officers to engage in casual, out-of-car and non-crisis relationship building within the Minneapolis community? Council President, Councilmember Whiting, You know, I'm looking for those opportunities every single day, and one thing that I can tell you is difficult is when you are short-staffed and you have your officers that are assigned to 911 spots and they're just going call to call to call, that sometimes it can be difficult, but that we, you know, we do have a community engagement team, and I think Commander Kaz does an amazing job looking for... I think that the way that we do that is to get our department to a point where You are able to bring back, and I know that this is Council Member Osman's wish as well, where you have beat officers that are out there on the street, out of squad cars, walking, interacting with community members, getting to know business owners, and one of the best places to do that is with our young people, establishing those relationships. I talked to you about this as well. I'm somebody who Over the course of my career, worked off-duty at Roosevelt High School for, I believe, close to 18 years. And the number of relationships that I formed while working there in an off-duty capacity were absolutely amazing. And that when I was assigned to the training unit, that I would ask all new hirees on their first day when they came in, who are you, where are you from, and what brought you here? And the vast majority of them... I would say that they had a positive interaction with a police officer, oftentimes with a school resource officer or a police officer at a school event or otherwise, and I think there's opportunities there as well, and I've communicated it to you that I would welcome the opportunities to sit down with you and anybody else to figure out how can we... Make those interactions happen more frequently. Great, thank you. Moving to three. How will you create or elevate formal channels for young people to consistently inform and advise on MPD policy? Council President who just stepped out, Council Member Whiting, again, I will be committed to looking for any and all opportunities. I can tell you that as the Inspector of the First Precinct working Thank you. With YCB, working with YouthLink, taking advantage of opportunities to go to YouthLink, sit down and hear from the younger members of our community exactly what you sat down with them and did to hear directly from them what are their concerns, what would they like to see, what do they want changed when it comes to the NPD. Um, I look for those opportunities, opportunities to connect with youth at community clubs. And again, um, finding ways where it's not always formalized, right? One of the things that I read in here is they don't want a police chief that's constantly walking around in this uniform that at times, you know, we're showing up to these events, um, in plain clothes. And that's something that I'm absolutely willing to do. Um, So again, looking for any and all opportunities to actually listen. That is one of the biggest things that I took from the information that you gave me, is that oftentimes our youth feel like they are being discarded, treated like adults, and they just want to be listened to. And I think that there is a yearning from... Um, A significant portion of our young population to have those positive interactions with police officers, that in turn benefits us because when we have those positive interactions, the return on investment is they do consider a career in law enforcement. And hopefully join our ranks within the Minneapolis Police Department. Great, and it's really good to hear. And I think my ask of you, right, is are you able to commit today to either attending or hosting a listening session, kind of these community sessions at every single Minneapolis Public High School each year that you are the MPD chief, if you are confirmed? Council Member Whiting, I'm going to skip the Council Member President on that one because he's not in the room, but I will commit to it. I will look for every opportunity there is to sit down with you and others to get out to our schools, to build relationships back with leadership within our school systems, to earn trust, and have those positive... It's invaluable, and I will absolutely commit to it and do everything that I can moving forward. Thank you. I know our kids would be very appreciative of that. Moving to the last one here, how will you continue to integrate and support unarmed public safety alternatives such as BCR, MCR, other mental health kind of services, first responder services, alongside traditional policing? Council President, Council Member Whiting, I welcome all of those opportunities. The Minneapolis Police Department cannot do it alone, nor should we be doing it alone. And as the inspector of the first precinct, there was constant consideration given to how can we look for alternatives to sworn police officers. Again, whether that is working with outreach workers. I've said it when I sat down with some of you, or many of you anyways, that... Some form of BCR or MCR is invaluable to the Minneapolis Police Department. I think that there was a belief that there would be this head-butting or contention between us and our initial vendor in behavioral crisis response, and I found it to be the opposite. There were times as the inspector that BCR was dropping off donuts to the first precinct because there's a belief that cops like donuts. Comments? And that we need more of those folks, whether it's, you know, downtown ahead, the downtown improvement district, embedded social workers, James Seals and Eric Payne. I mean, um... We've, you know, at one point it was brought to my attention that we weren't able to keep the presence along Hennepin Avenue and Nicollet Mall in a beat. And even if we put out opportunities that we didn't have enough cops to fill those positions and the funding that was originally there to pay for an officer, was diverted to putting security officers out on Nicollet Mall, and I can tell you that back when it first started off, Calvin and Mike did a fabulous job, and I would show up. Because it was only a pilot project and there wasn't funding there in support of, we've got to figure out how to fund them to keep them out there because they're doing an absolutely amazing job. Over the course of my career, I've worked with countless outreach groups that are brought into a variety of situations that are extremely helpful as well. We have our navigators. We have crime prevention specialists. There is a whole... A host of folks that are non-sworn, they're helping us in our public safety ecosystem. And if other people have new ideas, I welcome them all. Thank you, Chief Peterson. And those were the last of the questions I had from our kids. The only question that I will add in there is a fairly quick one. Would you agree that the Minneapolis Police Department has engaged in a pattern and practice of unconstitutional policing? Council President, Council Member Whiting, yes. Thank you. With that, those are my questions, Chief Peterson. I will just add a few comments here in our interactions, especially prior to today. All right, we've been listening into a portion of the questioning from the Minneapolis City Council of the interim police chief, Bill Peterson, expected to vote today on his On his nomination to become the permanent police chief replacing Brian O'Hara. Who resigned earlier this year amid a little bit of scandal and Bill Peterson was tapped to be the interim chief initially expressing that he was not interested in taking the job on on a long term basis, changing his mind through the course of his interim work. And then putting his name in the hat and he was the one then the Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frye did nominate. So again, he's been answering questions for over an hour now and just gone through a few council members. So quite a bit to go. We'll keep following this and head back to it when we can, again, especially when it comes to a vote. The city council also expected, well, it's on their agenda, to discuss ordinance for data centers in the city of Minneapolis, amending the ordinances to have a little bit more, I guess, control or direction about what can be developed, not banning them, but having more guardrails around. What can be built that's later down the agenda. We're gonna take a break. When we come back, we're gonna talk to our executive producer of documentaries and investigations, Jill Augustine. Again, we've got the second part of a three part documentary about Operation Metro Surge. It's called Thin Ice and the second episode. It's about the use of the label domestic terrorists and how that reverberated and the way that people were describing the federal government in their resistance or their observations of ICE activity in America.